28/03/2017 President
“Inclusion and integration are the key to combat radicalisation leading to terrorism. As direct representatives of citizens, Parliamentarians have a special responsibility to work within their communities, promote dialogue, understanding and inclusion”, PACE President said today addressing in Saint Petersburg the International Parliamentary Conference on Combating Terrorism co-organised by the Inter-parliamentary Assembly of the CIS Member States and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
“While reassuring our citizens, we should also denounce the populist discourse and any attempts to use and misuse the security rhetoric to divide our societies further. Populist rhetoric may play in the hands of terrorists. We should not allow this to happen”, Pedro Agramunt stated.
The President highlighted four areas of action where parliamentarians should concentrate their efforts to defend democratic societies against the terrorist threat: reaffirming publicly and in the strongest possible terms the absolute condemnation of all acts of terrorism, combating it while respecting human rights and the rule of law standards, developing further legal arsenal to combat terrorism and addressing the root causes that lead to violent extremism and radicalization.
Pedro Agramunt described the #NoHateNoFear initiative as a priority activity for the Parliamentary Assembly. Since its official launch, in June 2016, it has gained the support of many parliamentarians, Heads of State, Ministers, high officials, including the Secretary-General of the United Nations, as well as citizens with personal experience of terrorism, like Antoine Leiris, Luciana Milani, mother of an Italian victim of the Bataclan attack, or Bjorn Ihler, one of the survivors of the Utøya attack. “They overcame their trauma with reinforced conviction of the values of humanity and democracy. Their experience is a strong motivation for us to continue, while putting a special emphasise on the need to protect the victims of terrorism”, Mr Agramunt concluded.